The Biola Legal Society was created last year by junior political science major Elle Reed, who wanted to be a lawyer, but felt that Biola lacked resources. Reed wanted a place for students to gain resources and meet other students interested in a law career. As the club continues to grow, they hope to expand these resources and help students who desire to pursue careers in the legal field.
“The legal society is a group for students to support each other as we pursue law together,” BLS vice president and sophomore political science major Taylor Becker said.
A HUB OF RESOURCES
Sophomore nursing major and executive board member Megan De Paso said they hope to be a hub of resources for anyone interested in a career of law, such as practice LSATs and informational nights. She also said they aim to provide access to professors that students who are not pursuing a political science major interact with, such as media law professors, and hope these professors can answer students questions regarding the relationship between faith and law school.
Junior communications major Sarah Yuen, serving as co-vice president with Becker, said the club invites guests speakers from the legal field and holds panels featuring several speakers, such as associate professor of humanities and law at Torrey Honors Institute, Jamie Campbell. They hope events will help interested students answer their questions about law school and provide tips on how to be a Christian in the legal field. BLS also hosts other activities to give students the opportunity to interact with each other, such as beach trips and movie nights.
“We want to be a resource. We want to be a great place for people who want to do that, and to come and feel accepted and to gain knowledge and to grow as people — to come together and just kind of have that space,” Yuen said.
De Paso said the events provide key networking opportunities with professionals.
“Law is a career in which it’s a lot about who you know, so they sooner you can start making connections, the sooner internship opportunities come up,” De Paso said.
As next year’s club president, Becker hopes to help students become successful through mentorship programs connecting students with Biola alumni currently practicing law and other legal professionals, either online or in person. Becker believes mentors can help answer students’ questions.
“For the mentorship program, my vision would be for students to be presented with a role model that can help guide them through those questions and then also come alongside and help them figure out what area of law they should practice in,” Becker said.
INTERNSHIP CONNECTIONS
The club also plans to establish an internship program that will help students secure internships in the legal field and provide them with an opportunity to gain experience.
“I don’t think you can know if you want to practice law until you’ve worked in a law office. I think that just having exposure — real world exposure — would be the real goal of the internship program,” Becker said.
Yuen felt Biola lacked necessary resources to prepare students for a successful law career, and said the club seeks to equip students to impact the legal field as Christians.
“It’s a really lost field, it’s a really broken field and it’s a field that we need to fix. If we have kids who feel called the be lawyers, then we should be helping them,” Yuen said.
De Paso also said students are often discouraged from pursuing political and legal careers due to the competitive and secular environment associated with the legal field, De Paso believes the legal field provides ministry opportunities and said the club hopes to encourage students to pursue law despite these views.
“All of us in some capacity have been discouraged from pursuing law from the Christian people in our lives. The call to be a lawyer, to be in some sort of government position is just as much ministry as any other position, just dispelling the myths of wanting to be lawyers and politicians committed to something above our own personal agenda,” De Paso said.
